New-Tech Europe Magazine | Feb 2017

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new products
infrastructures and expertise needed to manufacture new and
innovative products – will be able to take their good ideas,
scale-them up and validate them with the first customers
for commercial production. The Pilot Lines will focus on
health applications, flexible organic light-emitting diodes and
sensors for the detection of chemicals in gas and liquids.
The European Commission has invested €35 million in these
projects to boost Europe’s industrial competitiveness. This
is part of the Commission’s €700 million investment in the
Photonics Public Private Partnership over the seven years
of Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research
and Innovation.
“With these Pilot Lines Europe will position itself at the
forefront of innovation in photonics. Our companies, and
in particular the manufacturing sector, will have access to
support for innovation and the facilities needed to get ahead
in global markets. Photonics is a crucial component for
the successful digitalisation of European industry and the
economy” said European Commissioner for Digital Economy
and Society Günther H. Oettinger.
The Photonics PPP was launched in December 2013 by
the European Commission in order to reinforce European
leadership in Photonics, one of the key enabling technologies
(KETs). Photonics are driving innovation in many areas, from
communications to advanced energy efficient lighting, and
from early detection of diseases to safety and security.
The Photonics PPP links up the European industry (large
players and SMEs), researchers, academia and the European
Commission to cooperate in research and innovation in the
Photonics domain and define strategic roadmaps in sectors
which can shape the future digital economy of the EU and
revolutionise the industrial landscape. The Photonics PPP
is characterised by having a strong impact in cross-cutting
areas: that is why Photonics can drive the transformation
of EU into a digital society and strengthen Europe’s Digital
Single Market.
The three manufacturing Pilot Lines are PIX4LIFE, MIRPHAB
and PI-SCALE.
PIX4Life ) is a pilot for a state-of-the-
art photonics platform for health applications. Recently,
a promising Silicon Nitride Photonic Integrated Circuit
technology was researched to make compact, low cost
detection and imaging systems in the visible range and the
TriPleXTM and BioPIX platforms were developed. PIX4Life
will scale up these platforms in order to bring Silicon
Nitride based systems towards commercial production and
industrial take up. This will open a multibillion market of
products including biosensors, cytometers, DNA sequencers,
gas sensors, microscopes, medical imagers and more.
The PIX4Life pilot line will drive European leadership in
health applications by making this technology accessible
to industrial and academic customers together with the
necessary design, packaging and test services. The project
brings together 15 leading organisations from 7 European
countries and is coordinated by IMEC, Belgium.
PI-SCALE ) is a pilot line providing open
access services to a wide range of external users in order
to accelerate the commercial adoption of flexible Organic
Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs). These large area, energy
efficient light sources are ultra-thin, flexible, lightweight films
which can be made or cut to any shape or size allowing new
opportunities to create high value-added products in many
different application areas, such as architectural lighting,
automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics and the built
environment. PI-SCALE will offer world class capability in
pilot production services for customised flexible OLEDs. It
will enable companies to quickly and cost effectively test
and scale up their flexible OLED lighting concepts and turn
them into market ready products. PI-SCALE brings together
14 expert partners, from 5 European countries and is
coordinated by Holst Centre, the Netherlands.
MIRPHAB ) is a pilot line for
prototyping and production of innovative sources and sensors
in the Mid-IR range, for the detection of chemicals in gas and
liquids. MIRPHAB platform is based on miniaturized laser
systems and will allow the manufacturing of compact, low
cost and low power consumption sensing devices which can
be used for safety, security and environmental applications.
The industry partners involved in MIRPHAB are committed
to deploy new products swiftly in the market and achieve
prompt take up in the environmental and chemical sensing
areas. The project brings together 18 leading organisations
from 9 European countries and is coordinated by CEA-Leti,
France.
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